November Happenings

A lot happened in November so I'm just going to dump it all at once.  First off: we decorated for Christmas!  Before Thanksgiving!  I know some people have hard set rules about not decorating until after Thanksgiving but it was snowing outside, Patrick was begging to put up our tree, I had minimal amount of Thanksgiving up anyway...it was pretty easy for me to cave.  And once I caved, I went all in and got everything out.  We had one of our Thanksgiving feasts at our house this year and, yes, everyone commented that it wasn't Christmas yet. :)  Anyway, the kids were adorably excited about the whole process and something about breaking out Christmas decorations and singing your heart out to "Joy to The World" does wonders for the soul.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I got minimal pictures of our celebrations.

Technically this was from a Halloween party a couple weeks before but we were all there and I have no other pictures so I'm just pretending this is us at Thanksgiving.

Wrestling time with Grandpa is the best, our house all ready for the holidays, and the little cuties at the kid's table

It worked out better for Jon's family to do Thanksgiving the day before so we had that celebration and the next day we did another celebration at my mom's house.  I have no pictures from that day but it consisted of my mom, brother, sister, grandma, grandpa and our little family.  My grandpa had been in an assisted facility for the last 2 months and even though his health was declining, they said it would be ok to take him for the day.  It was hard transporting him and by the end of it all he was exhausted but it was perfect.  My grandpa ended up passing away 2 days later and we all knew that spending time with family, outside of the nursing home, eating his favorite food and watching his favorite Christmas movie couldn't have been a better day spent with him.  We didn't know it would be almost his last day but we're really grateful that we felt strongly to bring him home for the holiday.

That next weekend we had the funeral for my grandpa(which now that I think of it, it was in December but I'm putting it here anyway).

Not gonna lie.  Funerals are tough.  Whether I was grieving for my grandpa or my dad all over again(or some of both), death just hurts.  2 days after this funeral we received news that my mom's aunt passed away.  Everyone in these pictures have felt the sting of death...some loved ones were taken too early and some probably not, but it still just hurts.  However, we have not had all of our family members together, in one place, for probably 20 years and on the flip side, it was a really great day of re-connection.  Man, I have some great family and I forgot how much these people mean to me.  Just looking at these pictures simultaneously makes me tear up a little but also smile and feel extremely grateful.  Oh, the nostalgia for the "good old days" when everyone lived closer and this family was extremely tight knit and we saw cousins on a very regular basis.  

This man was a big presence.  He was kind of one of those people you thought would be around forever.  He just always seemed strong and large.  He got himself into trouble a lot with things he'd say but really, his heart was gold.  He loved pretty, darn deeply.  And my boys loved him.  And I saw moments in the end, where he was vulnerable and despite mistakes made in the past, he really wanted to be loved deeply as well.  A couple weeks ago, I had a really strong impression that I needed to take my violin and play him hymns(one of his favorite things was listening to grandchildren, whether it be singing, piano, violin, etc).  At the time I felt kind of awkward because I'm usually one to push those promptings away, but I think we both needed that night.  Apparently he'd been having a really rough, lonely day and he genuinely acted grateful that I showed up that night and I needed a test of faith in following promptings.  And I got to see my grandpa in a different light.  I didn't know his time was so limited but now I'm eternally grateful for promptings we receive from the spirit.  

And to end with, on a completely different note:

  More pictures of this stinker in the tub.  We've had a lot of baths during these colder months to break up the day, usually when Patrick is at pre-school.  I would say he just loves water but he's pretty specific to the fact that it has to be warm water...none of that cold lake crap.  I completely agree. :)